"at this, though visibly fearful, and asks Antony to threaten him directly, rather than simply implying. Antony does so, by implying that Cicero will share the fate of Crassus in having molten gold poured down his throat, and then leaves, confident in his intimidation of Cicero. At Atia's house, a visitor arrives with a message from Octavian. As the servants go to fetch Atia, the man is captivated by a vision of Octavia, playing a harp. Unaware of his presence, Octavia plays until she makes a mistake, then curses and casts the harp aside. Startled to discover him, the man"
"support with an excessive promise of money. When he managed to pay only half of the promised sum however, he was deserted by Laetus and killed by rogue Praetorians. In one of the most infamous episodes in Roman history, the guard then proceeded to sell the Empire by auction to Didius Julianus. In response, the armies of Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus rose in revolt, and marched on Rome. When his demise appeared imminent, Didius Julianus ordered the execution of Laetus and the conspirators against Commodus, on suspicion that they would side with Severus. Quintus Aemilius Laetus Quintus"
"golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and her body was thrown from a rock known ever since by her name, the Tarpeian Rock. The Romans attacked the Sabines, who now held the citadel. The Roman advance was led by Hostus Hostilius, the Sabine defence by Mettus Curtius. Hostus fell in battle, and the Roman line gave way. They retreated to the gate of the Palatium. Romulus rallied his men by promising to build a temple to Jupiter Stator on the site. He then led them back into battle. Mettus Curtius was unhorsed and fled"
"captured or killed. Roman casualties amounted to about 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured making the battle one of the costliest defeats in Roman history. Parthian casualties were minimal. Rome was humiliated by this defeat, and this was made even worse by the fact that the Parthians had captured several Legionary Eagles. It is also mentioned by Plutarch that the Parthians found the Roman prisoner of war that resembled Crassus the most, dressed him as a woman and paraded him through Parthia for all to see. , with the rest of the Parthian Army, defeated the Armenians and captured their country."
"honoring himself and his family, including his wife, Empress Julia Domna, Caracalla, Plautilla and her brother-in-law Publius Septimius Geta. On January 22, 205 Gaius Fulvius Plautianus was executed for treachery and his family properties were confiscated. Plautilla and her daughter were exiled by Caracalla to Sicily and then to Lipari. They were treated very harshly and were eventually strangled, possibly on Caracalla's orders after the death of Septimius Severus on February 4, 211. Coins bearing her image that have survived are mainly from the reign of her father-in-law. They are inscribed Plautilla Augusta or Plautillae Augustae. A marble bust of"
"crowd of Perennis' plans. He wasn't believed, and Perennis had him executed. Later, a group of soldiers came to Commodus and relayed the details of the plot, and showed him coins with Perennis' portrait that they had stolen from one of prefect's sons. The emperor had him and his sons executed. Also instrumental in Perennis' downfall was Marcus Aurelius Cleander, who would go on to fulfill a similar role in the next period of Commodus's reign. Tigidius Perennis Sextus Tigidius Perennis (died 185) was a prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, during the reigns of"
"grudge against king Orodes II. He had the satrap crown the young Pacorus as rival-king of the Parthian Empire and campaign against Orodes. Even coins with the portrait of Pacorus were briefly minted. However, Pacorus and his father reconciled to each other and mintage of these coins stopped. The Parthian satrap who was behind the plot was probably shortly executed. In 42 BC, Quintus Labienus, a Roman rebel, began serving the Parthians. Later in 40 BC, the Parthians under Pacorus and Labienus invaded the Roman territories. The Parthian army crossed the Euphrates and attacked Apamea. The attack on Apamea failed"
"golden ""aquilae"" (legionary battle standards) by the Parthians was considered a grave moral defeat and evil omen for the Romans. At the time of his assassination, Caesar was planning a retaliatory war. It was said that there would have been harsh retribution if Caesar won, because the surviving son of Crassus would be among the Roman forces. However, the fall of the Roman Republic intervened, and the beginning of imperial monarchy at Rome followed. Sulla's first march on Rome in 88 BC had begun the collapse of the republican form of government, but the death of Crassus and the loss"
"of three Roman legions. In the battle that ensued, Cniva divided his army into three groups, including one concealed behind a swamp. The Romans achieved initial success against a part of the Gothic army, but were then ambushed in the swamp by Cniva's hidden force and massacred under a barrage of Gothic missiles. Herennius was probably killed by an arrow prior to or during the battle and Decius died in the midst of the chaos and slaughter, buried under the mud. Their bodies were never found. The Goths went on to capture the Imperial treasury of gold coins. The new"
"The immense slaughter marked one of the most catastrophic defeats in the history of the Roman Empire and resulted in the death of Decius himself. The Goths captured Decius' treasury of tons of gold coins and many weapons which have since been discovered in many locations over Gothic territories. Zonaras vividly narrates how: ""He and his son and a large number of Romans fell into the marshland; all of them perished there, none of their bodies to be found, as they were covered by the mud."" A 6th-century Byzantine scholar, Zosimus also described the total massacre of Decius' troops and"
"sources make frequent allusions to the gold being cursed. The earliest, Strabo, says that due to """"having laid hands on [the gold of Tolosa]... Caepio ended his life in misfortunes"""", while his near-contemporary Pompeius Trogus even suggested that the defeat at Arausio was punishment for the theft of the treasure. A Latin proverb, ""Aurum habet Tolosanum"" (""He has got the gold of Tolosa""; taken to mean “His ill-gotten wealth will do him no good.”) was even formed as a result. As is common, the ancient sources frequently contradict each other. Cicero is the earliest author whose extant writings mention the"
"Elagabalus as the new emperor. Elagabalus' claim was not uncontested, as several others made their own bids for ""the purple"". These included Verus the commander of LegioIII Gallica and Gellius Maximus the commander of LegioIV Scythica. History professor and author Martijn Icks notes the irony of Verus' claim as his legion had been the first to proclaim Elagabalus as the rightful emperor of Rome. These rebellions were quashed and their instigators executed. By March 222 A.D., Elagabalus was himself murdered by the Praetorian Guard, his body dumped in the river Tiber and his memory condemned by ""damnatio memoriae"" ordered by"
"Roman form of rhetoric that set the Gothic dynasty in a flatteringly Roman light. Soon after he was made king, Vitiges had his predecessor Theodahad murdered. Theodahad had enraged the Goths because he failed to send any assistance to Naples when it was besieged by the Byzantines, led by Belisarius. Justinian's general Belisarius took both Vitiges and Matasuntha as captives to Constantinople, and Vitiges died there, without any children. After his death, Matasuntha married the patrician Germanus Justinus, a nephew of Justinian I by his sister Vigilantia. Vitiges appears as a character in the time travel novel ""Lest Darkness Fall"","
"after his death in 323 BCE. The Parthians, who wrested control over their native Persia from the last Seleucid Kingdom in the East in 147 BCE, were also noted for their reliance upon cataphracts as well as horse archers in battle. Greco-Bactrian Kingdom also adopted cataphract. The Romans came to know cataphracts during their frequent wars in the Hellenistic East. Cataphracts had varying levels of success against Roman military tactics more so at the Battle of Carrhae and less so at the battle of Lucullus with Tigranes the Great near Tigranocerta in 69 BCE. In 38 BCE, the Roman general"
"(""vexillatio"") from VI ""Ferrata"". The Dacians repelled the first attack, but the Romans, helped by a treacherous local nobleman, found and destroyed the water pipes of the Dacian capital. Running out of water and food the city fell and was razed. Decebalus fled, but was followed by the Roman cavalry and committed suicide rather than submit. Nevertheless, the war went on. Thanks to the treason of a confidant of the Dacian king, Bicilis, the Romans found Decebalus's treasure in the river of Sargesia/Sargetia - a fortune estimated by Carcopino at 165,500 kg of gold and 331,000 kg of silver. The"
"the Alamanni. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are the most enduring monument of his rule. He was assassinated while en route to a campaign against the Parthians by a Praetorian Guard. Younger son of Severus, Geta was made co-emperor with his older brother Caracalla upon his father's death. Unlike the much more successful joint reign of Marcus Aurelius and his brother Lucius Verus in the previous century, relations were hostile between the two Severan brothers from the very start. Geta was assassinated in his mother's apartments by order of Caracalla, who thereafter ruled as sole Augustus. Marcus Opelius Macrinus"
"be the gold bracelets they wear on their left arms, instead they crushed her to death when they heaped their shields on top of her as her reward. Lucius Piso claimed that she was motivated not by greed, but a plan to trick the Sabines and that she was killed only after they came to suspect her of treachery. Livy writes that the girl was simply bribed, but also cites the trickery account related by Dionysius. The Sabine and Roman armies gathered at the Palatine and Capitoline Hills; the Sabines were commanded by Mettius Curtius and the Romans by Hostus"
"Gratian Gratian (; ; ; 18 April/23 May 359 – 25 August 383) was Roman emperor from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied, during his youth, his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian's brother Valentinian II was declared emperor by his father's soldiers. In 378, Gratian's generals won a decisive victory over the Lentienses, a branch of the Alamanni, at the Battle of Argentovaria. Gratian subsequently led a campaign across the Rhine, the last emperor to do so, and attacked the Lentienses, forcing"
"Cantilia (gens) The gens Cantilia was a Roman family during the late Republic. It is known chiefly from a single individual, Lucius Cantilius, secretary of the pontiffs in 216 B.C., during the Second Punic War. After the catastrophic defeat of the Romans by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae, Rome was beset by ill omens and superstitious dread. It was soon discovered that two of the Vestal Virgins, Opimia and Floronia, had been debauched. One of them took her own life, while the other was buried alive at the Colline Gate, which was the traditional punishment for her offense. Cantilius,"
"a reconciliation meeting arranged by their mother, Caracalla had Geta assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal to himself, Geta dying in his mother's arms. Caracalla then persecuted and executed most of Geta's supporters and ordered a ""damnatio memoriae"" pronounced by the Senate against his brother's memory. Geta's image was removed from all paintings, coins were melted down, statues were destroyed, his name was struck from papyrus records, and it became a capital offence to speak or write Geta's name. In the aftermath of the ""damnatio memoriae"", an estimated 20,000 people were massacred. Those killed were Geta's inner circle"
"191 Severus was appointed governor of Pannonia Superior by Commodus on the advice of Quintus Aemilius Laetus, prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Commodus was assassinated the following year. Pertinax was acclaimed emperor, but he was then killed by the Praetorian Guard in early 193. In response to the murder of Pertinax, Severus's legion ""XIV Gemina"" proclaimed him Emperor at Carnuntum. Nearby legions, such as ""X Gemina"" at Vindobona, soon followed. Having assembled an army, Severus hurried to Italy. Pertinax's successor in Rome, Didius Julianus, had bought the emperorship in an auction. Julianus was condemned to death by the Senate and"
"own as co-Emperors, Pupienus and Balbinus with Gordian I's grandson Gordian III as ""Caesar"". Maximinus marched on Rome but was assassinated by his Legio II Parthica, and subsequently Pupienus and Balbinus were murdered by the Praetorian Guard. In the following years, numerous generals of the Roman army fought each other for control of the empire and neglected their duties of defending it from invasion. There were frequent raids across the Rhine and Danube frontier by foreign tribes, including the Carpians, Goths, Vandals, and Alamanni, and attacks from Sassanids in the east. Climate changes and a sea level rise disrupted the"
"soldiers died under the weight of the trees trunks and branches and the panicked survivors were slaughtered by the Boii waiting outside the forest. A party of Romans tried to escape across a river, but were captured by the Boii who had already taken the bridge over it. Few Roman prisoners were taken and only ten men survived the disaster. Postumius fought to avoid capture but was killed, decapitated and his head taken to a Boii sacred temple, where the skin was scraped off and the bare skull covered with gold. It was used as a cup for drinking by"
"were controlled by the Arsacid dynasty and known as the Parthian Empire. Due in large part to their employment of powerful heavy cavalry and mobile horse archers, Parthia was the most formidable enemy of the Roman Empire in the east. As early as 53 BC, the Roman general Crassus had invaded Parthia, but he was killed and his army was defeated at the Battle of Carrhae. In the years following Carrhae, the Romans were divided in civil war and hence unable to campaign against Parthia. Trajan also campaigned against the Parthians from 114–117 AD and briefly captured their capital Ctesiphon,"
"the brothers from captivity, slaying their captors, including a Roman named Gnaeus Tarquinius. This episode is depicted in a fresco at the tomb of the Etruscan Saties family at Vulci, now known as the François Tomb. This tradition suggests that perhaps the sons of the elder Tarquin attempted to seize power, but were defeated by the regent, Servius Tullius, and his companions; Tullius would then have attempted to end the dynastic struggle by marrying his daughters to the grandsons of Tarquinius Priscus. However, this plan ultimately failed, as Tullius was himself assassinated at the instigation of his son-in-law, who succeeded"
"and in Livy he was met at the palace by the governor of Pella and the royal pages. In Plutarch he was met by his treasurers whom he killed because of bold remarks about the defeat. Perseus’ friends, who also had escaped to Pella independently, shunned him. Only Euander the Cretan, Archedamus the Aetolian, and Neon the Boeotian remained. Fearing a plot, Perseus continued his escape with an escort of about five hundred Cretans. They did so only because they were given money. He rushed to cross the river Axius before daylight, because he thought that the Romans would not"
"faith. Later, the governor Rictius Varus (Rictiovarus) questioned Gentian about the whereabouts of Victoricus and Fuscian. Gentian refused to tell him and was consequently beheaded. According to the ""Golden Legend"", the governor later brought Victoricus and Fuscian to Amiens. ""Then took spears of iron and put them through their ears and through their nostrils, and had them decapitated. And by the will and power of our Lord, they arose up, and took their heads in their hands, and bare them two miles far from the place where they had been beheaded."" It is said that all three were buried at"
"guard. The cohort that was on duty at the Palatine, which had accompanied the emperor, instantly deserted him. Galba, his newly adopted son Piso, and others were brutally murdered by the Praetorians.Titus Vinius tried to run away, calling out that Otho had not ordered him killed, but was run through with a spear.Cornelius Laco was banished to an island where he was later murdered by soldiers of Otho. Icelus Martianus was also executed The Former Commander of the Praetorian Guard Tigellinus was obliged to commit suicide. The brief struggle over, Otho returned in triumph to the camp, and on the"
"an emperor who worshipped the gods, felt that the gods could at last be avenged. The shout arose, ""Away with George!"" and ""in a moment,"" says the Fragmentist, they threw him into prison, with Diodorus and Dracontius, the master of the mint, who had overthrown a pagan altar which he found standing there (Ammian.). The captives were kept in irons until the morning of 24 December. Then the pagan mob again assembled, dragged them forth with ""horrible shouts"" of triumph, and kicked them to death. They flung the mangled body of George on a camel, which they led through every"
"killed by the Roman General Marcus Valerius Maximianus. In 173, the Romans campaigned against the Quadi, who had broken their treaty and assisted their kin, and defeated and subdued them. During this campaign, a famous incident, the so-called ""miracle of the rain"", occurred, which was later depicted on the column of Marcus Aurelius and on coins. According to Cassius Dio, the ""legio XII Fulminata"" was hemmed in by a superior Quadi force and almost forced to surrender because of the heat and thirst. They were saved, however, by a sudden shower, which refreshed the Romans, while lightning struck the Quadi."
"Marcus Marius Gratidianus Marcus Marius Gratidianus (died 82 BC) was a Roman praetor, and a partisan of the political faction known as the populares, led by his uncle, Gaius Marius, during the civil war between the followers of Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. As praetor, Gratidianus is known for his policy of currency reform during the economic crisis of the 80s. Although this period of Roman history is marked by the extreme violence and cruelty practiced by partisans on each side, Gratidianus suffered a particularly vicious death during the Sullan proscriptions; in the most sensational accounts, he was tortured and"
"through the enemy line before being killed by an enemy legionary thrusting a gladius in his mouth. Appianus reports that after the battle Caesar himself said to be in Crastinus' debt, tributed him heroic rites and erecting an altar. Ross Cowan in his monograph ""Roman Battle Tactics 109 BC – AD 313"" advances the hypothesis that Crastinus offered himself as sacrifice to the Underworld Gods to ensure Caesar victory in a ""Devotio"". In this rite, a Roman soldier offered to die in battle and pledged his soul to the Gods of underworld to ensure in exchange the destruction of the"
"and luxury induced his opponents to apply to the Roman emperor Claudius to release from Rome an Arsacid prince, Meherdates, who lived there as hostage. Meherdates crossed the Euphrates in 49, but was beaten and taken prisoner by Gotarzes II, who cut off his ears. Soon afterwards Gotarzes II died--according to Tacitus, of an illness, although Josephus says that he was murdered. His last coin is dated from June 51. Gotarzes II was succeeded briefly by his uncle Vonones II and then by the latter's son, Vologases I. Gotarzes II is unfavorably portrayed in Robert Graves' novel Claudius the God."